Not all that surprising. I have to wonder why eVgo deployed such a large network there – would have made a lot more sense to deploy the network in an area with much more EV interest. If those stations could charge Teslas at 50 kW, I bet that would increase their utilization a good deal – Tesla seems to sell a decent number of cars there despite the obstruction Tesla faces there.

I would like to see a video focusing on all the different lifestyle charging methods. I read a comment here the other day from a Leaf driver that charges primarily from a 110V supply. That totally blew my mind. I know there are plenty of EREV and PHEV drivers who do that but it just pointed out how varied an EV can be when it comes to charging. The message being that there really is not one scenario that fits everyone and the flexibility continues to grow.

In what is turning out to be probably the longest running experiment for no reason/little payback, we have a LEAF that has never experienced a “fill” at a fast charger or L2 outlet. I’m not exactly sure why we are doing it anymore, but it’s a ‘thing’ now, so the project continues.

Well north of 50K now and counting – all standard outlet usage – which is a heck of a lot considering the amount of down time the car needs to store up that much energy. It has also never operated above 95 degrees.

…so it can be done. In other news, someday someone is going to get the best ‘used’ 100K+ 2011 Nissan LEAF in history.

Right you are Jay, 120 volt charging has its place as you have proved. If absolutely every one had ev’s then utilities would greatly prefer 120 volt charging since it would be so little added load on their lines, while running up the electric bils.

I’m not sure about Leaf’s , but Tesla reductive chargers (Roadster and Rav4ev) are less efficient at 120 then 200 or 240 by a factor of about 35 %.

So, in addition to using more juice overall in that case, utilities in any event would prefer to spread the entire charging event over the WHOLE 11pm – 7 am period. That way, since no electricity to speak of is being used, they don’t have to upgrade any infrastructure, but benefit by higher electric bills. That’s another reason why utilities secretly don’t want this Solar Panel thing to get ‘ out of hand’ (too many people putting them in).. That cuts into their profitability.

The Volt and all other EVs are probably similar. There’s a more or less fixed amount of overhead while charging to run cooling pumps, electronics and stuff, not to mention that having to bump the voltage up higher is difficult to do as efficiently.

Ah, look – the Idaho National Labs tested the Volt on-board-charger, too. Go here and scroll down to view the report (along many others): http://avt.inel.gov/phev.shtml

It looks like the on-board-charger itself is actually very efficient on 120V – ~90% or about the same as charging on 208V. Note that those numbers don’t include other overhead during charging, so it’s hard to say exactly what the overall charging efficiency is on either voltage, though in some of the other docs they state that the overall charging efficiency is between 85-87%.

Awesome, thanks for digging that up. I hadn’t thought about the fixed overhead at all; now it makes more sense. Of course, any of these are going to be wildly more efficient than the hopefully-not-coming wireless charging everyone keeps talking about.

I’m doing this too. My leased leaf charges from a 110V plug in my garage and occasionally from a 110V at work. I live only 6 miles from home and drive home for lunch too, so that’s about 24 miles on a typical day. I usually charge every second day. It’s never been connected to an L2 charger, except at the dealer before they gave it to me.

I’ve surprised a lot of the people that ask me about the car’s charging needs. “Do you need a special charger?” “Nope, just a regular wall socket in the garage.” I tell them that will put 50-60 miles of range back on the car overnight on a typical night and it seems to impress them.

I took the car to our National Plug-In Day event in West Palm Beach and spread the good word to a lot of interested people!

Brian, good for you. That is the exact scenario I used to describe how Leaf owners could get away with using a 110v outlet if their commutes are fairly short. We had a lot of people interested in the Volt, Leaf and of course all of the Tesla’s parked around me at the event in Folsom, CA. I admit to being envious of the Tesla Superchargers 2 parking spaces away.